Solidify Your Customers' Networks
Performing a thorough network and computer security audit helps a VAR earn a $185,000 install with a municipality, plus an additional $100,000 in referrals.
It's amazing what can happen when a company or organization has to accomplish a task but doesn't have the proper computer equipment and software. The result is what's known in the tech industry as a 'workaround.' MSI Technologies, LLC, a Mountain Lakes, NJ-based networking and security VAR, does business in the local government market and has a lot of experience working with customers who struggle with a similar problem. One example is a township in Bergen County, NJ, a municipality with departments in three locations that manages $27 million worth of assets. MSI Technologies had provided server and computer support for one of the departments in the municipality for several years with little access to the other two buildings. When the new mayor took charge of the township, he wanted to change the way the administration ran its IT programs. The mayor put together a request for qualification (RFQ), and MSI Technologies put in a bid. "Because the RFQ is a public, sealed bid process, we never found out who else we competed against or exactly what gave our company an advantage; in the end, the township awarded MSI Technologies the contract," says Joshua Simon, CSSA (Certified SonicWALL Security Administrator) technical services specialist at MSI Technologies. "Over the course of the following month, we conducted an in-depth evaluation of the township's networks, computers, and applications, and presented our findings." Following are a few highlights of what the VAR uncovered:
n Consumer Wi-Fi equipment was used in one building, but no wireless security was in place.
n The municipality performed a daily tape backup, but no data was being written to tape.
n One department was using a Windows 98 workstation as a file server, and no security was turned on.
n A couple of departments were running applications that vendors no longer supported.
n Several departments used homemade applications, such as Access 97 databases, for handling public works service calls.
n All three buildings used multiple service providers for Internet access; some departments had too much connectivity, whereas others had insufficient bandwidth.
n Some programs, such as the water meter reading program, had no access to the township's network and required sneaker netting (i.e. sharing a USB drive among computers).
n Some departments had their own file servers that used unsupported operating systems.
Build And Secure The Network
Some of the township employees were aware of the problems, but no one knew where to start to fix them. MSI Technologies presented a proposal that began with the network, then focused on peripheral equipment and software. "Because of the scope of the project, we tackled the township's IT issues in phases that spanned a year," says Darren Sammartino, Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, CSSA, technical services partner at MSI Technologies. "One of the first steps was to replace legacy servers, workstations, and networking gear with Dell and SonicWALL products."
The VAR rolled out Dell Optiplex workstations, Dell Latitude laptops, and Dell PowerEdge 2900 and 1900 series servers. On the networking, security, and storage fronts, MSI Technologies used SonicWALL Pro 2040 UTM (unified threat management) appliances, SonicWALL CDP (continuous data protection) 3440i and 2440i with site-to-site disk-based backup functionality, a SonicWALL ES 200 e-mail security appliance, a SonicWALL TZ170 wireless router, and a SonicWALL SSL (secure socket layer) VPN (virtual private network) for remote encrypted access.
MSI Technologies also worked with a document management VAR to set up Ricoh MFPs (multifunction peripherals), which enabled the township to scan paper documents and save them as PDFs on the server. "After installing the e-mail security appliance, e-mail spam messages were reduced by an average of 200 a day," says Simon. "Also, each employee has a username and password, and each department is set up with specific access restrictions to the network. For example, someone working in the tax office is unable to access records from public works."
The overall project earned the VAR $185,000 and provided it with a lot of positive exposure in the community. "Some of the township officials do double duty at other boroughs, and a few of them have mentioned the work we did," says Simon. "We've already picked up a couple of network security projects totaling $100,000, and we're not even finished with our initial project."